Legendary Nigerian musician and Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has been named the first African to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, marking a historic global recognition of his influence nearly three decades after his death.
The Recording Academy announced the honour ahead of the upcoming Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, where members of his family, friends and colleagues are expected to receive the award posthumously on his behalf. The recognition comes amid growing global attention on African music following the rise of Afrobeats and the introduction of the Best African Performance category in 2024.
Reacting to the announcement in an interview with BBC, his son and fellow Afrobeat musician, Seun Kuti, described the recognition as overdue. “Fela has been in the hearts of the people for such a long time. Now the Grammys have acknowledged it, and it’s a double victory,” he said. “It’s bringing balance to a Fela story.”
Longtime friend and former manager, Rikki Stein told the BBC that the honour was “better late than never.” He added, “Africa hasn’t in the past rated very highly in their interests. I think that’s changing quite a bit of late.”
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, first presented in 1963, has previously gone to music icons including Bing Crosby. This year’s honourees also include Carlos Santana, Chaka Khan and Paul Simon, but Fela stands out as the first African recipient of the distinction.
Widely regarded as the architect of Afrobeat, Fela pioneered the genre alongside drummer Tony Allen, blending West African rhythms with jazz, funk, highlife and politically charged lyricism. Across a career spanning about three decades until his death in 1997, he released more than 50 albums and built a legacy that fused music with resistance and cultural identity.
Beyond music, Fela was known for his outspoken opposition to social injustice, corruption and military rule in Nigeria. Stein noted during the same media interaction that he “castigated any form of social injustice, corruption [and] mismanagement” in government.
His activism peaked in 1977 after the release of Zombie, which mocked military authority. Soldiers raided and burned his Lagos commune, Kalakuta Republic, brutalised residents and fatally injured his mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Rather than retreat, Fela responded through protest music, releasing Coffin for Head of State and carrying his mother’s coffin to government offices.
Reflecting further in the interview, Seun Kuti said, “The global human tapestry needs this, not just because it’s my father.” He added that Fela’s influence was rooted in discipline and humanity: “The human part of him, leadership, musicianship, fatherhood, that was the epitome of who he was.”
With the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Fela Kuti’s impact on music and activism is now formally etched into global history, reaffirming his status as a cultural icon whose work transcended entertainment and became a tool for liberation.
Ademide Adebayo
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